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Sunday, October 20, 2013

TPRS year 4 - Commercial - Jimmy Dean - "Listo"

So my wife and I have a MOHO digital antenna.  Pretty neat in and of itself.  But we somehow got a Spanish channel suddenly through it in the KC area!  So we're pumped.  Well, the Spanish teacher nerd in me always thinking of authentic resources is... she likes the idea of watching television she understands. ;-)

But I noticed this commercial by Jimmy Dean...



This is pretty neat.  I was looking at it originally for some comprehensible terms from class like "la ropa" "zapatos" and "libros" and possibly at some point "listo(s)".  The commercial is basically a mother making sure her family is ready for the day and their day starts with a good breakfast.  But the mother is the focal point of this traditional "Hispanic" family.

But as I continued to watch the commercial, I thought about comparing it to a similar commercial in English.  The only thing is that there wasn't one.  As I looked at the Jimmy Dean commercials in English on Youtube, something stuck out to me.  They often involved a single person talking to the sun about their less-than-nutritional or delicious breakfast.

Then it hit me.  As Spanish teachers we teach culture through perspectives and products.  In this commercial alone we see an American product finally being advertised to Hispanics.  But the ad campaign looks different from the Anglo-American counterpart.

This commercial shows the mother as the center of the family and what keeps it running (value) and everyone else getting ready to start the day and then eating breakfast together.

Now whether this happens in Latino-American families or not is not as much the question to me as to why this would be the marketing approach.

I was thinking for a class extension activity to the commercial, we could compare/contrast to a few English commercials.  Or we could further question why this would be the marketing approach.

As a friend from Mexico once told me, the mother in Mexico (and possible other Spanish-speaking nations) is a strong idea.  Think about in Mexican Catholicism how important the maternal Guadalupana is perceived.

Anyways, something that piqued my interest and I wanted to share.

What do YOU think?

2 comments:

  1. Love it! How about comparing these two commercials for Oscar Meyer - Spanish version - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFrY5DY3wz4 English version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2ZG4pRgTDs And wksht. https://docs.google.com/document/d/17JILBOvZzTVz6Tgm7VnGA3m7oqLVKzpzyiraupKqC8s/edit

    Or how about this one for Mac and Cheese https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MEJ7F2iDQw and wksht. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bISiYec79Ia1tuq9cOngupNUHidOj_nVSFFSOL1RKRI/edit

    Also, not sure if you saw this, but scroll down on this page and there are a whole bunch of commercial transcripts and worksheets http://reflecciones-kj.blogspot.com/p/mafla-using-commercials-in-spanish.html

    And thanks for your chistes too! My students love Friday mornings when we start with your jokes :)

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    1. I am such a consumer. I guess I just read people's comments and don't respond. Thanks yet again for commenting and helping out with pushing me to be a better teacher! Strangely I don't think I ever saw this comment. ;-) Hope your year is going well!

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